Process of making white antimony oxid.



.No. 704,367. Patented July 8, I902. A. 8. PLEWS.

PROCESS OF MAKING WHITE ANTIMONY 0X10.

- (Application filed Feb. 15, 1902.)

(No Model.)

jnvamlvr UNITED STATES PATENT- OFFICE.

ARTHUR STEPHEN ILElVS, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

PROCESS OF MAKlNG WHlTEANTlMONY OXID.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 704,367, dated July 8,1902.

Application filed February 15, 1902- Serial No. 1 (N0 sp imens.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR STEPHEN PLEWS, asubject of the King of GreatBritain, residing at No. 2 Basinghall avenue, London, England, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Producing \Vhite Oxid ofAntimony, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates to a process for the manufacture of whiteoxid of antimony and compounds thereof direct from the ore, and has forits object the obtaining of a pure white oxid of antimony direct fromthe ore capable of being placed immediately upon the market withoutfurther treatment or purification.

The ore having been crushed to about half an inch in size is chargedinto a furnace already heated to a dull-red heat fired by smokelessfuel. An oxidizing-flame is applied and the heat raised to a brightredness and maintained thereat as long as antimony fumes continue to beevolved. In some ores the antimony is not easily volatilized by anoxidizing-flame. In such cases I change periodically the flame of thefurnace from an oxidizing to a reducing one, and vice versa, for thepurpose of thoroughly breaking up the antimony compounds and oxidizingand volatilizing the antimony. A quick draft is insured by drawing thefumes from the furnace by means of an exhaust-fan. This draft isnecessary to prevent redeposition of fumes in the furnace. At a suitablepoint in their course before or after leaving the fan the said fumes aremet by a jet of steam and having mingled therewith pass together to thecondensing-chambers of suitable form and extent. In these chambers aconsiderable portion of the oxid is deposited, and any fume stillundeposited is absorbed by passing the exit through a body of water.

The furnace employed may be a gas-furnace, preferably a revolvingreverberatoryfurnace, and be supplied with any suitable form of gaseousfuel. Where the fuel is ordinary coal-gas, the combustion of this gas,which contains a large proportion of hydrogen and hydrocarbons, willgenerate a certain quantity of steam. 'Where, however, the fuel is whatis known as producer-gas, consistin g principally of carbonic oxid,practically the whole of the steam required must be otherwise supplied.In place of coal-gas or producer-gas any other smokeless source of heatmay be employed-as, for instance, oil-gas or carbonic oxid produced fromany incandescent-carbon compound. V

In the drawing accompanying this specifi cation I have illustrateddiagrammatically one arrangement of apparatus suitable for the carryinginto effect of my process. The apparatus diagrammatically illustratedare sev erally well known and require no special de scription.

A represents the gas producer or some equivalent source of heat, and athe air-inlet from blower; B, the roasting-furnace, represented as ofthe ordinary revolver type.

C 0 represent the condensing-chambers, and c a-fan in the fineconnecting the same.

D is a water-seal tank; E, a fan or blower driving the gases through Dto the exit-flue F. A flue H conducts directly to the chimney for usewhen heating up or the like.

The Various portions of the apparatus are of course in communication onewith another, but not necessarily in the order shown. Thus, forinstance, the fan E may be placed at any other suitable point in theapparatus and may be arranged to act as an aspirator instead of ablower. The steam-supply is preferably introduced into the condenser atthe point marked J but another inlet or series of inlets may beprovided.

What I claim is-= 1. The process for producing merchantable white oxidof antimony direct from the ore by exposing the said ore at a bright redheat to make a smokeless current of gases, and periodically changing thesaid gases from a reducing to an oxidizing atmosphere and back againuntil the antimony is volatilized, condensing the fumes in the presenceof aqueous vapor and collecting the condensed products substantially asset forth.

2. The process for producing merchantable white oxid of antimony directfrom the ore, which comprises the following steps: roasting the crushedore with smokeless fuel in a quick draft at a bright red heat,periodically changing the flame from an oxidizing to a reducing flameand Vice Versa as long as antimony fumes continue to be evolved, subecting the antimony fumes to the action of steam hand, in presence oftwo witnesses, this 4th escaping under pressure, and collecting the dayof February, 1902.

mingled combustion products and steam in ,T

comfensing-chambers having means for ab- ARTHUR STEPHEN 5 sorbing anytraces of antimony from the exit- Witnesses:

gases. SYDNEY J. HOOPER,

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my LEONARD E. HAYNES.

